


i'm not your protagonist

by Queensme



Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Dream Dies, Gen, alot, but thats okay because he deserves it, here we go again, rlcraft once more bb
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-19
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-14 23:08:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29549793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Queensme/pseuds/Queensme
Summary: dream rubbed his hands as he watched the portal behind him close, the colors turning purple before a sound not unlike smashing glass was heard. it was broken, and there wasn’t anything to do about it. may as well explore.and explore he did. he couldn’t even tell which direction was north, as if his internal compass had been torn from him. he kicked at some of the rocks on the ground as he walked, from a biome of yellow and red trees into a plain grassland before the end of the night.—aka something weird happens while dream's in exile
Comments: 8
Kudos: 25





	1. i am not your protagonist

**Author's Note:**

> LETS GO I DIDN'T GET WRITERS BLOCK FOR THIS ONE  
> direct sequel to https://archiveofourown.org/works/28649877, the lore in its kinda needed for this one
> 
> anyways, rlcraft tommy is something i want to write more of

reality was strange here.

dream rubbed his hands as he watched the portal behind him close, the colors turning purple before a sound not unlike smashing glass was heard. it was broken, and there wasn’t anything to do about it. may as well explore.

and explore he did. he couldn’t even tell which direction was north, as if his internal compass had been torn from him. he kicked at some of the rocks on the ground as he walked, from a biome of yellow and red trees into a plain grassland before the end of the night.

dream laid on the ground, seeing as he didn’t have a bed. he plucked grass strings from the ground and tore them apart while he stared at the sky. it was quiet, much quieter than the smp, but he couldn’t tell if it was a safe quiet or a dangerous quiet. it was much clearer.

something flew in front of his face. it was so small he couldn’t see it, and he felt it as it laid down on the exposed part of his skin and did something, then flew off. he felt the mark, then immediately went to scratching it.

okay. that would get annoying.

he heard the clacking of bones, and dream sat up, staring at the approaching skeleton. it’d already drawn its bow, and was hunched over as if hunting. he barely had a moment to react before an arrow was shot into his arm, and he felt intense pain.

it wasn’t like he’d never been shot in the arm before, but this pain was agonizing. instead of washing all over his body it remained where the arrow was located. he got the feeling that this was normal.

another arrow was loaded into the skeleton’s hand, wnd it reached back and shot him again, this time in the forehead. he barely had a moment to react, before he fell to the ground limp again.

the world was doused in darkness before he knew it. the abyss, something he’d only seen once, a place where people who truly had used their last life went. he looked around himself, searching for an exit, but before he could the ground underneath him gave way and he was plunged into water.

naturally, he began swimming.

he didn’t make it.

back in the abyss.

he didn’t know how many times he’d been to the abyss before he finally managed to live for longer than five minutes. it seemed like the world liked to play with its victims, toss them around until they didn’t know which way was up.

shit. was this what boffy had dealt with for eight years? dream didn’t even know if he would make it one before going insane.

scratch that. if his little brother could do it, then so could he, because dream was more powerful than him. at least, that’s what he hoped, otherwise he’d have a problem on his hands.

he woke up in a village, finally. the villagers were violent towards him at first, holding up spears and shouting for him to ‘begone’, before he held up his arms and showed that he meant peace. they demanded that he take his mask off, and he did.

“this is not the boy,” one of the villagers said.

“what?” dream questioned. “what boy? bo—”

“do not speak his name!” another villager cried. “he has done nothing but bring us death and misery!”

“you know him?” dream tilted his head in confusion.

“who doesn’t?” asked a new villager, a small child.

“he’s destroyed countless villages, slain hundreds of our people. of course we know of  _ him _ .”

“he’s worse than notch!”

“notch’s a myth.” dream said.

“i’m not sure where you come from, but not here.” a villager in an ornate gown said. “he’s our bane, the reason we live in these small villages.”

“so who’s your god, then?”

“what god?”

dream stayed in the village for a few days and learned basic survival. couldn’t knock down a tree with his hands, so he had to make a flint axe and knock it down at the base. bandages were made from wool and string and were his best friends. stone was hard to get, because the rocks crumbled as he broke them and so he had to remake them into cobblestone. a bed was a necessity.

at night, he looked out the window of one villager’s shack, and saw creatures he’d never seen before. giant dog-like creatures, with furs of yellow and brown. birds with hooks instead of talons, worms with pinchers the size of his torso. everything was warped, there were so many things that would kill him without a glance.

the fact that the things could snap him in half on a whim was scary. he watched as the head villager pointed out the beasts, named them without a problem, and dream listened. wargs, feradons, rocs, raikos—there were so many.

he left in the morning with a compass. the only good thing he’d been told was that phantoms refused to spawn in this world, with a stern warning to not allow a skeleton to shoot him. he took it with care, staying away from the caves and thick trees where they could appear.

the day wasn’t eventful, surprisingly. dream saw a tall tower, which he supposed might have loot in it, so he placed his bed next to it and waited until night to sleep.

—

_ “this is a really dumb idea,” dream said, but his voice was deeper, and he was looking at tommy and tommy wasn’t scared of him. the brit let out a chuckle, motioning inside with a smile. “really. really. REALLY dumb.” _

_ “you pussying out?” tommy asked, and dream thought for a moment about how old the blonde was at the time. he couldn’t have been over twelve. _

_ dream looked down at his hands—or, more specifically, boffy’s hands—before looking back up at the brit. he felt his face split into a grin, even though tommy couldn’t see it. “hell no.” _

_ the two boys neared the entrance to the tower, boffy glancing quickly at all the exits. there was another door on the opposite side of the wall, along with a door that led to some stairs, presumably going up the tower. between two mob spawners sat a chest, one with skeletons and one with zombies. dream had known that the brunette analyzed his surroundings, but he didn’t know as to what extent before. _

_ boffy cracked his knuckles, and tommy grinned, before the two dashed in as quickly as they could. boffy went straight for the chest, to which he tossed a pickaxe to tommy, but before the blonde caught it a skeleton fired an arrow into his arm. boffy grabbed his other wrist and the two dashed out and hid behind the back wall. _

_ “ow, ow ow—,” tommy muttered, while boffy pulled the arrow out and threw it to the ground, pulling some bandages out of his bag and wrapping them around the wound. “fuck. at least we got a pickaxe.” _

_ “yeah,” boffy said. the two sat in silence for a few moments, before bursting into laughter. _

_ “man, fuck you!” tommy said, punching boffy. the other boy retaliated with a snicker and kicked his shin. _

_ “that was so fucking dumb,” boffy reached under his mask and rubbed his face. “we didn’t even get anything to break the spawners with.” _

_ “WE’RE so fucking dumb,” tommy corrected. “let’s try again.” _

_ yep. that blonde kid in front of dream sure as hell was tommyinnit. there was no way that he couldn’t be. err, the old tommyinnit. not the one that he’d made. it was a necessity, and dream wasn’t going to argue. _

_ they came back around the front entrance, and immediately there was an arrow in tommy’s head. dream probably would’ve screamed had he been in that situation, but instead boffy simply sighed. “nice.” _

_ dream watched as tommy came out of the woods a couple minutes later, having respawned. _

_ “man, what the fuck?” tommy laughed. _

_ “that was so funny from my point of view,” boffy said, quickly dissolving into chuckles. “that skeleton just popped you.” _

_ the world melted to black, and dream thought. he thought about the memories he’d just relived, the fact that the two boys in them were vastly different barely even three years later was a shock to him. it almost hurt. _

_ tommy was a necessity. boffy was— _

_ he was— _

_ he— _

_ dream couldn’t come up with an answer. he changed tommy for the good of the server and the world, because the reckless blonde was one day going to surely get so many people killed, so why not nip the problem in the bud? he changed boffy, changed him so much that the teenager that took his place bore no semblance of the boy they nicknamed because he couldn’t pronounce his name. _

_ who even was boffy now? was he even still his brother? _

_ dream doubted it. if drista hated him and he hadn’t even done anything to her, then the brunette was going to hate him more. _

—

dream didn’t realize it when he felt his bed suddenly get more comfortable.


	2. i'm not even my own

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> boffy wakes up in a bed that isn't his.

boffy awoke with his head in pain. he sat up, rubbing his head before reaching for his mask, only to find that he was met with air. he opened his eyes, glaring at the harsh sunlight, before taking a look around. he was outside. what the fuck.

“guys?” boffy called out hoarsely. he cleared his throat, blinked a few times to let his vision clear, before he tried again. “guys? are you there?”

he slid off the bed, looking at it. it definitely wasn’t his bed. he took another glance around, and—

no.

no no no.

_ no _ .

_ NO. _

“GUYS?” boffy yelled, only to be met with the sound of flies around him and leaves blowing in the distance. the trees were weird, the ground was colored wrong, he was standing next to a battletower—

no response. his breathing picked up pace, his chest heaving and fear building in his stomach. this had to be some sick joke. there was no way they would send him here with dream. no way—

he looked down. he was wearing a green sweatshirt and fingerless gloves. he frantically unclasped the mask from around his head—

the smiley face. the pristine fucking smiley face that was his bane. boffy threw the mask to the ground, covering his mouth and stumbling backwards. his back hit the wall of the battletower, and he slid down it without a care.

what the  _ fuck _ ?

he was hyperventillating, because no, this couldn’t he happening. he couldn’t have been sent  _ back  _ to rlcraft, wearing his brother’s clothes and apparently preparing to destroy a tower. that wasn’t possible, they didn’t even have any glowing powder in the regular world—

boffy went back over to the bed, spotting a bag next to it. dream’s inventory. he looked inside of it, finding the basics, but he still took the crafting table and bandages. He controlled his breathing, then stepped inside the battletower, taking a deep breath and rushing towards the spawners. they were quickly broken, and he filled in the holes in the roof so nothing could drop down. inside the chest was the expected—leather armor, some wood, and a saber. with the wood he crafted a crude shield, then rushed up the stairs to the next floor.

by night, he’d cleared over half the tower, and was out of bandages. boffy kicked the chest open and grabbed the contents, before heading back down. maybe if he went to bed he’d be okay. there was no way they just left him to die in the hell he’d come from.

he dropped what he was carrying by the bed, sighing and walking over to a pond. he sat down next to it, reaching in and grabbing some water to drink. he caught a glimpse of his reflection.

boffy’s vision was blurry, granted, but he was sure that he didn’t look like that. his hair wasn’t blonde, he didn’t have green eyes, and his face was covered in far less freckles. he looked at  _ dream’s _ face for a few moments, before leaning back and looking at the moon.

what the fuck happened to him? why was he in  _ dream’s  _ body? how did dream get farther in a few days than he did in his first year? why was he still able to use tools that he barely knew how to use?

he laid down on the bed, swallowing back the sobs that threatened to escape. it wasn’t for anyone’s sake but his own, boffy didn’t have time to wallow in despair. he had to figure it out.

—

dream opened his eyes to a small room made from smooth stone and oak wood. there was a singular window, looking over the prime path, and he could only presume that he was in where tommy’s house was supposed to be. he slid off the bed, looking at his hands. no black fingerless gloves. his sweatshirt wasn’t white. he was fairly certain that the mask he wore was birch instead of dark oak. oh, who was he fooling, he already could tell that something was seriously wrong. he stepped out of the room, and noticed tommy.

“morning, boffy,” tommy greeted. dream was about to say that he wasn’t boffy, but thought about it and decided to go along. he nodded at them, checking the communicator that sat on his wrist. it was outdated and had a cracked screen, and there weren’t very many contacts in the list, more or less tournament gcs that weren’t ever used after the event. his id glitched often, between boffy and dream’s.

“morning,” dream replied. he opened the door to the outside, savoring the sight of his world, before heading out.

it was strange, to say the least. l’manburg was still there, the country ever so slowly expanding from the crater of wilbur’s deeds. if he was being honest, the village sized town was beautiful, and he caught sight of philza speaking to ranboo.

ranboo was a good kid, dream had decided when he first met him. philza was a good father. everyone on the server was good, except for tommy, and, now that he thought of it, boffy and drista. the devils in disguise.

and he was standing in one of their bodies. it was strange, because, as he found, siblings were unbalanced. they did everything with magic, using their power on a whim almost. granted, nobody had taught either how to use them, but at least one would expect them to have a sort of rule set to what they could and couldn’t do.

he sat on a bench in the prime church, where nobody would notice him. dream didn’t know how well boffy fitted in around the server, but he knew how to hide, and that’s what he needed. he needed time to think about what needed to be done.

first of all, drista. the glitch in the system. she held even more power than he did, every so often she’d break into his mind and steal information. she wasn’t supposed to even be on the server, but she’d broken in, presumably when mexican dream got in.

mexican dream. prime, he sure was glad that he’d killed that  _ thing _ .

she used magic mostly. her stance was awful, and even if she had the strongest weapon on the server she’d be able to do little damage with her physical strength. her access to every item did scare dream a little, though.

he doubted he’d have to worry about his cousins. tapl and fruitberries didn’t have much reason to join the server, so they wouldn’t be a problem. and tubbo was tubbo. nothing needed to be fixed with tubbo.

boffy was a problem. he wasn’t physically strong, a common trope in dream’s family, but he was more, far more, athletic than the rest. he supposed that years of running from monsters the likes of which never seen would do that to someone. dream was in a body that belonged to a kid who’d spent eight years of his life in constant fear, and he could  _ feel  _ it.

if he could figure out a way to stay in this body, boffy wouldn’t be a problem, so long as he didn’t somehow find a way back. drista could be dealt with by throwing her through a portal and then coding it out. if tap or fruit came, he could simply do the same.

there. plan made. now he had to figure out how to close an interdimensional rift.

easy enough.

—

boffy awoke still next to the battletower. he sighed, rubbed the green eyes that weren’t his, before standing and getting some water. the face in the water wasn’t pleasing at all, and he hated it, but the mask that was offered for him to wear wasn’t any better. he went to stand when he was tackled by something, causing him to fall in the water.

“the fu—” he muttered as he came to the surface, before he realized what it was. a lurker. boffy shrieked, kicking himself away from it as quickly as he could, grabbing a rock and throwing it at the creature. he felt nauseous as he pulled himself onto land, but he swallowed the bile in exchange for grabbing the saber from  _ dream’s  _ inventory. the monster lunged at him again, but he sliced down with the weapon before it could reach him again, splurting purple blood onto his clothing and face.

great. now these clothes were bad. as if it couldn’t get any worse.

he pulled off what he could, rubbing the blood on his face onto the cleaner part of the sweatshirt. being poisoned was not going to be fun.

boffy threw himself in the pond again, to wash the rest off, before deciding to find another pond to drink out of because he was not going to kill himself with dirty water. he’d respawn, he already knew, but the abyss still scared him. it had when he was barely older than a toddler, and it still did now.

so he was in a white t-shirt and a pair of tournament leggings, and of all things to get dirty the gloves weren’t one of them. he wasn’t even sure if he could take them off, actually. oh well, might as get the use out of them while he still could.

boffy grabbed a pair of leather boots that he’d obtained and slipped them on. armor couldn’t keep his arms safe, so he made a set of sleeves from the other leather objects he’d grabbed. next thing was getting milk so he would be actually be able to eat, but he couldn’t get greedy could he? maybe he would find a village?

  1. they would kill him.



may as well give it a try.

he packed up the items that were of use to him in his inventory and carried around dream’s, walking in a random direction.

by the end of the day he found a village, with villagers cautious of him. they held their spears near him, and led him deeper inside, until he was near the well. boffy stayed silent as they checked his inventory, before finally a small villager approached him.

“you’re  _ him _ , aren’t you?” she questioned, furrowing her brows. “you’re here to burn us?”

“i—no,” boffy said. “i’m not, i’m not here to kill you.”

“so you  _ are  _ him,” one of the other villagers said. the others raised their spears towards him, and he backed closer to a wall, swallowing.

“i’m not here to hurt you!” he repeated, holding his arms up. “i need help, i’m not gonna hurt anyone!”

“doubtful,” said another villager. they came even closer, and one took a jab that he barely was able to dodge.

“fuck it,” boffy muttered, ducking under the arms of the villagers and running towards where his inventory was sitting on the ground. he picked it up and slid over onto its side, to which a set of flint and steel slid out along with some very flammable objects. he unsheathed the saber, slicing at a villager who got too close, bfore striking the firestarting materials together and watching as flames erupted on the side of a house.

they charged at him with spears and bows. all he had was a stupid little saber, so the archers would be difficult to dispatch, but he could make it work. he parried attacks and his behind walls as he quickly set most of the houses on fire, the only exception being the windmill that stood proud in the center.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the villagers are just massive brained okay have you ever wondered why they're bald???
> 
> anyways yeah. magic shit. let's see where i go with this.


	3. i don't know anything

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ranboo is arguing with ran and boo  
> boffy is vibing with the fire  
> dream is being dream

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> legit a filler chapter, i just wanted to get this out because i couldnt figure out how to link the two, plus a bigger chapter do be happening soon so yeah ;}

_tired._

**we’ve barely done anything all day, what do you mean you’re tired?**

_tired._

“yeah, i’m tired too,” ranboo said, noting how slowly he was ascending the stairs from the prime path. “‘s almost night, guys.”

_tired. now._

**will you shut up?**

“don’t be mean,” ranboo rubbed his eyes, sighing as he reached the top. the church was behind him, tommy’s dug out house sitting next to him with the recent extension until boffy built his own place to live. most members of the smp were in their houses getting ready for bed by now, all except ranboo and maybe a couple of others.

the sun went down over the horizon.

_awake!_

**OH NOW YOU WANT TO BE AWAKE?**

“ow! don’t yell!” ranboo rubbed his head. “we’re going to bed.”

he’d taken up a sleeping routine, a more normal one, since it seemed to help with his memory. puffy mentioned something about half mobs becoming more like their monster half during the night and as a result it was likely causing his memory issues. endermen were active at night, and during the day were all over the place.

before he went to bed, though, he needed to do something. particularly; grab his book, they were still at war and he couldn’t afford to let it get out that he’d given techno’s armor back. so he walked to the outskirts of town, where he remembered burying it. ranboo could swear he was getting better at remembering, at this point.

_awake! awake! we’ll remember!_

**we’re gonna have worse memory issues if we don’t go to bed, moron.**

he met boffy on the path. the half god seemed to be lost in thought, and he didn’t cast ranboo a glance, even when his eyes accidentally xrayed through his mask. he said a quick hello before stepping past him, continuing to his house.

ranboo tried to sleep that night. he wasn’t successful.

—

boffy had forgotten the adrenaline rush that burning villages gave.

he watched the last iron golem crumble to the ground, an aegis’ shield dropping next to him as the sole survivor of the village dashed away. he didn’t feel like chasing him, so instead he dropped his sword onto the ground and laid back into the ash, the smell of smoke the only thing for miles.

dream's body was fatigued, much unlike how boffy would've been had this been his body. his joints weren't stiffened, but they weren't working smoothly either, to the point where he doubted that he could run from a monster had he the need. he knew how to deal with most monsters anyways, but if needed he would be dead.

boffy didn't want to see the abyss again. especially when he wasn't in his own body.

he dug a hole into the ground and crawled into it. the stone beneath him was hard, and many terrible memories of running from villagers and hiding in mountains when he was no more than six. sleeping was a struggle, but he managed. maybe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> everyone: ranboo is half endie half ghast or something  
> bigger brains: ranboo is half iron golem  
> biggest brain: ranboo is half heterochromic white cat  
> fr tho what if...  
> ran and boo, enderman and cat. guess which is which.
> 
> then there's boffy in spain without the s lmao

**Author's Note:**

> i need to write more rlcraft/2b2t tommy because i honestly love those ones  
> lore on respawn stuff: so someone can respawn however many times they want, because there's a respawn radius. in normal worlds its just at spawn but in rlcraft (in both the story and actual game) the radius is 10k blocks, meaning if you die in that radius you'll always respawn.


End file.
